Translucent: Can You See Right Through Her? Volume 3
|
|
|
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
View all Media
|
|
|
February 11, 2008
by: James Jursudakul
Another enjoyable entry into this delightfully refreshing romantic comedy / drama with a twist.
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
Manga Description: Shojo fans will enjoy the humor, romance, and odd twists found in Translucent, as Shizuka Shiroyama tries to finish the eight grade while coping with school woes, a hyperactive admirer, and a disease which is literally turning her transparent! In this volume, Shizuka also deals with a nosy new doctor, a friend’s emotional wedding, and her growing crush on a classmate. While the Translucent Syndrome brings many everyday complications, Shizuka is determined to follow her dreams, support her friends, and live a fairly normal life. . . despite all of the crazy problems that are thrown her way.
Writer and artist Kazuhiro Okamoto presents a smart and sensitive series, with plenty of humor and a dash of angst–perfect for any shojo fan!
This collection is translated into English but oriented in a right-to-left reading format, as originally published.
Manga Review
Content: (This section may contain spoilers.)
Translucent: Can You See Right Through Her? Volume 3 continues to develop the main cast of interesting characters at a gradual pace; Volume 3‘s chapters features more of the cute, funny moments with just a dash of quirkiness, as well as touching moments that reveal various frailties and imperfections that the characters all try to hide – but then also try hard to accept as a part of themselves and overcome. Okouchi-san, for one, is confronted with such moments in this volume’s first chapter – Part 13: The Best of Friends. When the series had started out, the popular Okouchi-san, who was disquieted of constantly trying to live up to everyone's high-expectations for her, was envious of Shizuka since people often left her alone because she has Translucent Syndrome; however, now that Okouchi-san has become good friends with Shizuka and has gotten to know her a lot better, she realizes that she has come to pity her. With Keiko's wedding coming up, Okouchi-san was looking forward to seeing Keiko in her wedding dress, but when she finds out Keiko won't be in one because of her Translucent Syndrome, Okouchi-san let's it slip out in front of Shizuka that being translucent is a drag. She even thought to herself “I’m so glad I‘m not Shizuka-chan” – and she detests herself for it. Troubled by her thoughts, Okouchi-san wonders how she can even be considered a friend to Shizuka.
In Part 16: Hard Times and Suffering, Tomomi Yanaka, a renowned actress whom Shizuka reveres, is to visit the school’s drama club to take a look at their practice and see how the club’s doing. Shizuka, who has been putting all her heart into practicing for the play, is asked to renounce her part as the lead role because she’ll likely be close to invisible the day Tomomi comes by, and the drama club president argues it’d be unfair to the person watching to have see an invisible person playing the lead role – having a translucent person in the cast would not be showing off the drama club‘s absolute best. Shizuka, being the kind, soft-hearted girl that she is, understands and renounces her role but cries her heart out later on – she cries because she’s translucent, she cries because it’s not fair, and she cries because she’s not strong.
There are also a few chapters with a focus on the funny, light-hearted moments the series has to offer. In Part 15: Confidential Document Rescue Operation, Shizuka infiltrates Mamoru Tadami’s house while she’s at a near invisible – and naked! – state in order to retrieve Okouchi-san’s diary after Mamoru inadvertently took it home with him. This chapter also briefly introduces the entire Tadami family, showing the odd methods they use to wake up Mamoru. Then in the last chapter of the volume, Part 18: Mamoru’s Adult Experience, Mamoru’s elder sister holds one of his plastic models hostage and forces him to go on a group date with her. Shizuka and Okouchi-san follow along to spy on Mamoru, and are dismayed when they come to a realization that there’s really no way they can physically compare with older girls yet.
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
Okouchi-san and Shizuka Shiroyama get a glimpse of one of the girls Mamoru Tadami meets when he's practically forced to go on a group date with his elder sister.
As with the previous two volumes of the series, Translucent: Can You See Right Through Her? Volume 3 provides for a light and enjoyable read. There is a good balance of comedy and drama present, and the main heroines go through a good amount of character development as well. Mamoru is as eccentric with his behavior as ever, with quite a few funny moments that show off his childish quirkiness – such as playing as a giant monster and trashing a toy city with his little brother – but there are also some heart-warming moments that showcases how understanding he is of Shizuka. The series is very character-centric and readers can empathize with most of the characters in Translucent due to their very practical and realistic feelings. For example: Okouchi-san’s sensitive feelings of pity for Shizuka’s condition is in the same vain of feeling pity for any other person’s condition/disability; Shizuka, by giving up her part in the play per the drama club’s request, despite her personal feelings, expresses mere conformity under societal pressure; and Mamoru’s odd antics is expressive of doing what one wants – no matter what others may think. These more down to earth situations the characters are placed in – despite the presence of a made up condition – and how the characters go about approaching them gives the series a charming touch and makes for a refreshing read.
Art: Kazuhiro Okamoto employs a cute and simple style that is able to draw out the characters’ emotions in the panels and context of the story extremely well. In addition, the characters in Translucent are more varied in design than with most other manga titles – no two characters, however insignificant to the story, share duplicated looks, and that cannot be said for the majority of manga series. That said, while art has a wholly original look to it, it’s not too impressive in details. As opposed to the characters, most of the backgrounds and objects do look fairly generic, with just a fair amount of details present. There some occasional good looking large panel or full page drawings with more use of a varied grey scale present, although they don’t ever really give off an impressive look.
Translucent © 2005 Kazuhiro Okamoto / Media Factory. All rights reserved.
Okouchi-san is abhorred when she finds herself thinking she's glad it's not herself, instead of Shizuka-chan, who's translucent.
Translation: (Translucent: Can You See Right Through Her? Volume 3 is presented in a right-to-left format and contains/retains the use of: Japanese honorifics w/o the inclusion of an honorific explanation page, and the original Japanese sound-effects w/ small translations of the effects placed nearby.)
The translation job is well done, as would be expected from a Dark Horse Manga title. There is only one oversight present in Translucent Volume 3: on page 96 the “dan” – foot stomp – sound effect is untranslated. Other than that, everything is translated well, with fitting dialogue for the characters and scenarios. Dark Horse has also included a nice little paragraph on the content page that introduces the series and its character to potential new readers. The printing of the manga is of great quality – with better ink and paper quality than that or most other publishers’ titles at the $9.95 price point. Extras in this volume include: six Omake One-Page Bonus Manga evenly divided and placed in-between every two chapters, a bonus page that takes a look at Okouchi‘s room, and a one-page bonus sneak peak at Translucent Volume 4. The Omake manga are as cute and funny as ever and, as with the rest of the extras, are a great addition to the volume.
The Bottom Line: Translucent: Can You See Right Through Her? continues to be a delightful read. The characters are very likable, and their placements in the many practical situations of angst, joy, and sorrow are easy to feel empathic with. Furthermore, the art is great in conveying character emotions and the translation by Dark Horse Manga is nearly flawless. If you enjoyed the past volumes of Translucent, Volume 3 will not disappoint. And if you’ve yet to read the series definitely pick up this volume – as well as the rest of the series if you’ve yet to – if you’re a fan of romantic comedy / drama titles, and are looking for a cute and refreshing new series to get into.
|
|
|
|
Content |
A character-centric story with very likable characters and a good balance of drama and light-hearted comedy. |
8.5 |
|
|
Art |
Characters are uniquely designed and the emotions they feel within the story's context get conveyed to the reader well. There's not a lot of detail present in the style, however. |
7.3 |
|
|
Translation |
A wonderful job by Dark Horse. Good production quality and some few neat extras included as well. There is only one untranslated sound effect. |
9.9 |
|
|
Verdict
A delightful and refreshing entry into the romantic comedy / drama genre that's definitely worth a look.
|
|
8.5
[not an average]
+ Characters are likable and easy to empathize with.
+ Good medley of drama and romantic comedy.
+ A well done translation job by Dark Horse Manga.
- The art isn't the most detailed in presentation.
- No color pages included.
- Volume 4 may not be solicited. . .
|
|
|
Title Media 
Return to Homepage
Discuss this in the Forums
|
